clipped from www.bendingthecurve.co.za
Bending the Curve is not just another book about the climate crisis, but a guide - co-authored by 24 experts - that will help you move from deliberation to action. Whether you are a parent or policy developer, or work for a corporate or civil society organisation, you will find a wealth of practical ideas for making changes at work and in your personal life that will improve the lives of everyone and help to tackle this scourge. There is no time to lose. We all need to get started now
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Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Bending the Curve - a guide to tackling Climate Change in South Africa
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Wrestlers and Wankers - you're what's wrong with the world
clipped from www.nickvanderleek.com
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JSE sinks below 19 000 - time to jump ship?
clipped from www.businessday.co.za |
Monday, February 23, 2009
“The markets might be at six-year lows, however the prospects of getting a job are at lifetime lows.” - BLOOMBERG
clipped from www.bloomberg.com
A gauge of homebuilders in S&P indexes dropped 16 percent. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was the only stock to advance among 30 |
Sunday, February 22, 2009
LightLane's Lasers Make an Instant Bike Lane
clipped from blog.wired.com
Clearly
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Friday, February 20, 2009
Dow Crashes Through 8000 Because the Market Knows the Bailout Won't Work - Here's Why
clipped from biz.yahoo.com
The blue chips' latest slide dashed hopes that the doldrums of November would mark the ending point of a long slump in the market, which is now nearly halfway below the peak levels reached in October 2007.
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Friday, February 13, 2009
Manuel says don't worry about 'Recession' - I say 'get ready for it'
Once again, while we all may wish that the economy recovers quickly from the current malaise, this is dependent on exigenous factors (external) becoming benign. This is too much to hope for. World economic growth is prjected to be a paltry 0.5% in 2009. That means little or no positive flows are likely to prop up either South Africa's economy or any other.
Another important factor to remember is current energy prices are an illusion. >$50 oil does not reflect true extraction costs, and this cannot continue for much longer. This is an artifical and temporary reprieve thanks to corrupt dealings in those markets. We are wrong to be grateful for these, because higher energy prices stimulated investment in alternatives, and also in further production capacity. Both of these are now no longer possible. The result? An energy supply crunch in 2009, possibly in mid-2009. As demand tries to turn, energy prices will spike, only worse than in 2008.
The result: unemployment and inflation - cycles of both. Very nasty.
clipped from www.businessday.co.za CAPE TOWN — Treasury officials conceded yesterday that if the global economic downturn proved to be deeper and more prolonged than expected it would pose a significant risk to the economic growth forecast they used to underpin the 2009-10 budget announced by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel this week.
They believe the severe global recession will drag down domestic growth much further than the government expects. |
In 2009, the recession will worsen - thus we need to invest in sustainability, not growth [there's a difference]
Freight should increasingly be shifted from roads onto rail, especially on the Gauteng-Durban and Gauteng-Cape Town corridors.
Governments can mitigate the impact, especially by spending money in areas that promote long term sustainability and foster sustainable livelihoods.
Individuals and communities can strengthen their resilience to the tough times by spending wisely, reducing debts, acquiring appropriate new skills, building local economies and even adopting local complementary currencies. - Jeremey Wakeford
NVDL: The idea of investing in growth means trying to prop up already failing enterprises (that are doomed to fail anyway, including banks and housing markets.) Investing in sustainability means growing new things, opening up land to new farming practices, and making more alternative energy systems available. Primarily it is a focus more on rail than road. More on local living and local production capacity.
clipped from www.ideas21.co.za
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Thursday, February 12, 2009
Attack this financial crisis with green cards not just greenbacks, and with start-ups not just bailouts - Friedman
NVDL: Intwisting theory. Still seems based on this idea that growth is implicit. I think growth and sustainability are mutually exclusive.
clipped from www.nytimes.com “All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans,” said Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express newspaper. “We will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate — no Indian bank today has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans.”
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"In the face of the overwhelming evidence that we could no longer afford to continue living the way we were, why did we continue?" - my comments on Budget 2008 were 100% correct.
clipped from www.nickvanderleek.com Part of the job of Finance Minister (think of Allan Greenspan too) is to 'be positive'. To say things that will please the market. Are the markets too sensitive to deal with 'too much' reality? Apparently so. So the cup is ALWAYS half full. Last night the Rand was R7,87 to the dollar (a five year low) as speculators feared capital flight, but after checking the fineprint we're back to 'normal' levels (whatever that is). Sure enough the economy - reflected in terms of the JSE - is right as rain again, bouncing happily up to 30 000 based on fundamental bullshit. Someone makes a speech and says, "Hey, things aren't so good, but really, they're not so bad either." What does that mean? So if everything is right as rain and the storm clouds are gathering (presumably for more rain) but all's well in Vegas, where is all this going? Back to Delusionville. Financial Wishfulthinkington. The JSE is up 1.82% to 30025.240. |
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Porn and Sex Districts - KunstlerCast
Human networks have been destroyed by our alienating built environment and cultural landscape...
clipped from www.kunstlercast.com
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
1000 people die of AIDS each day in SA - that's 365 000 per year!
clipped from news.yahoo.com
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2010 FIFA World Cup host city posters [PICTURES]
Monday, February 9, 2009
SA Needs Passports because our Home Affairs are HOPELESS!!!
Suffice it to say I still don't have my passport. Have a look at the brilliant system they have for photocopying your ID for their records. Real state of the art.
clipped from www.africasia.com
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UFO photographed by South African
I am guessing the UFO is a terrestrial creature known as a leaf, that fell off a tree and blew by...
Far less strange things have happened.
clipped from www.news24.com
“Ons is Christene, maar iets vreemds het hier gebeur. Ons is nie mense wat glo in ‘klein groen mannetjies’ nie. |
Woolworths becomes 'cheapskate' - YAY!
Oh the layout and the Woolworths product is great (and all), but you're not getting any value - not close. So I think it's good that they're shaving some bucks of their stuff. The question will be - how much? Enough?
clipped from www.reuters.com
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